Best Moto Mods compatible phone for me?

Well, it's soon time to replace my ancient Droid 4. I want to use the new Livermorium slide-out QWERTY keyboard when it comes out. I'm not interested in debating this; I have my reasons. That means apparently that I'm limited to whatever Moto phones are compatible with Moto Mods.

I'm looking for something reasonably fast for simple apps, including Uber and Maps. I'd like a sensitive touchscreen. Camera is irrelevant to me, as is preload crap. Basically, I just want something that's reliable, reasonably fast, sensitive touchcscreen and will be supported by Motorola for a while.

Definitely closer to the Z2 Play's price. I'd likely buy it used to save even more. What is Z2 Play like? Pros/Cons?

Realistically, if you're set on Moto Mods, the pickings are slim.

If you'd like to save more, the first gen Z Play/Force are an option. They are still sold new at prices radically similar to the second gen models, making them far less attractive options. Getting Oreo on the older models is less likely too.

My sister in law has the Z2 Play, but she got it for the relatively cheap price for something stocked at a Verizon store.

Like most midrange phones these days the processor is fine, its got 3-4GB of ram and on board storage (32-64GB with a micro sd card slot). 1080p screen, headphone jack.

Camera is passable, battery life is decent -- but everything packs a 3000mAh battery at this point.

Thank you all for the encouragement! It really meant a lot. Quite tough this week – Factory nearly closed and some team member has left back to their home town for the new year. And I need to prepare for the massive cost for mass production when they come back. Cannot speed up at February really. Thank you all for being supportive and understand the situation. You are the best backers ever!!!

That's fine with the mod blocking the camera. I would almost never use it. I assume any of these would work in Canada on a GSM network? No locking of any kind to anyone/thing?

Thanks, I never noticed that section showing progress updates. Wow! Their communications are awful. It's hard to make heads or tails of what he's trying to say. I still can't figure out exactly when pre-order standard units will become available, or if they'll all be delayed due to Chinese New Year.

Oh, and WTH. They talk about QWERTY and non-QWERTY versions of the keyboard. Aren't they all QWERTY versions? Is i just me or are their communication skills horrible.

That's fine with the mod blocking the camera. I would almost never use it. I assume any of these would work in Canada on a GSM network? No locking of any kind to anyone/thing?

Thanks, I never noticed that section showing progress updates. Wow! Their communications are awful. It's hard to make heads or tails of what he's trying to say. I still can't figure out exactly when pre-order standard units will become available, or if they'll all be delayed due to Chinese New Year.

Oh, and WTH. They talk about QWERTY and non-QWERTY versions of the keyboard. Aren't they all QWERTY versions? Is i just me or are their communication skills horrible.

I'm guessing there will be some impact to RF performance, but no locking.

They're a non-native English speaker as far as I can tell. In Europe, it's not uncommon to have a QWERTZ instead of a QWERTY, and I honestly forgot the distribution of who uses what (there's other variations aas well if you want to check out here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_ ... rd_layouts ). They're doing QWERTY first, then QWERTZ. It's one of the fun little regionalization issues you have when you're shipping a physical keyboard.

They're basically saying that if it has a battery in it, they're not expecting to even start shipping for at least a month or so. As this is a crowd-funded device, I'm fairly certain this will be pushed back further. Unless you're a backer, I'm not sure when you'd even be able to purchase the device (and even if you were, I'm not sure when you'd even get it). Though, it's not uncommon for crowd-funded backers to receive their devices after it's already hit shelves. I've seen that a couple times.

You may have to excuse my cynicism, but these are being made by people who in general don't know what they're doing. The short answer is, until it hits the retail shelves and gets good reviews for what it is, don't buy a phone for it.

Will the generic Moto version be more free of crapware than the Verizon version? My Droid 4 originally had so much crapware on it that couldn't be uninstalled without rooting <cough> Lineage OS<cough>

Any new phone will blow yours out of the water. You're getting a faster processor, more ram. It will be a night and day kind of experience. Don't know what version of LineageOS your currently using but I imagine there are some hiccups trying to get it to run smoothly on an TI OMAP processor.

As for bloatware, if you buy from Motorola directly you should be fine.

Amazon is not direct from Motorola... the only OEMs I'm aware of who sell direct to customers in Canada are Apple, BlackBerry, and OnePlus.

In Canada, if you're not buying direct from a carrier, that means you're usually getting an "International Version", which means no manufacturer warranty. Also means you have to check the listing very carefully as you may not get all the LTE bands you need. You may get a seller-provided warranty, depending on the seller. Carriers don't sell to non-customers. The other option is to get a prepaid phone from a carrier (which they WILL sell to non-customers, and you also get a warranty), though I've never seen any of the Moto Z's as a prepaid option. I picked up a Moto G5 prepaid from PC Mobile though.

Two best places to get phones online in Canada are Best Buy Marketplace (i.e. all third-party sellers) or Amazon.ca. If you live in the GTA, Pacific Mall is also a really good place to get phones, but now that everything is sold unlocked, it's not the only place to get phones any more.

If I were to buy used, which carrier's phone would likely be the most compatible in Canada and have the least crapware?

Don't buy a used carrier phone unless it's sold unlocked. I'm pretty sure Moto sells the same phones for all of NA regardless of carrier (except for Verizon, natch), so as long as you don't get the Verizon version, you should be good. The most important feature in this regard is LTE Band 7, which Moto does support.

Google and HTC also sell direct here, but yeah, the lack of a warranty for everything else is annoying.

Forgot about Google, but didn't know that about HTC. Thanks! HTC used to be pretty much my top brand but I haven't had one since the One S, which was a loooooong time ago. Like Gingerbread days. lol. Good to know I can get a phone directly from them. They still hold a special place in my heart.

[quote="bkaral"...They're basically saying that if it has a battery in it, they're not expecting to even start shipping for at least a month or so. As this is a crowd-funded device, I'm fairly certain this will be pushed back further. Unless you're a backer, I'm not sure when you'd even be able to purchase the device (and even if you were, I'm not sure when you'd even get it). Though, it's not uncommon for crowd-funded backers to receive their devices after it's already hit shelves. I've seen that a couple times.

You may have to excuse my cynicism, but these are being made by people who in general don't know what they're doing. The short answer is, until it hits the retail shelves and gets good reviews for what it is, don't buy a phone for it.

Seeing as the Livermorium keyboard has been reviewed by several 3rd party sites, and Moto has announced it officially as a Moto Mod, I doubt it's vaporware.

It's not about vaporware, it's about when they'll actually ship (and sometimes it does come down to if). Prototypes are easy, production is hard. Another example is one of the other MotoMods that Motorola approved was one with lights on the back called the EdgeMod which claimed to ship in July 2017. Still hasn't shipped, and no contact at all for a couple months now.

@Scott – It affects both versions. For the batteryversion we need to have the signature file to make it official and licensed, for both we need to activate OTA server in Moto. The issue is now the team used to work for 3rd party mods has disappeared, we need someone to complete this for us. I trust it will still be done, but at least will be after this restructuring/layoff finishes.

Quote:

Thanks for sharing I don't care the reason behind but Mods and Z team in Moto was irreversibly impacted. I am holding the news for now just for the hope that what I learned was not the case...

We cannot move on to production until we finish OTA update server implementation with Moto’s side. And the above layoff has a huge impact on current situation and future. This is the most I can tell at this moment.

"We cannot move on to production until we finish OTA update server implementation with Moto’s side"

So rumors of Z-line engineer layoffs has given them a get of jail free card. They haven't started production (despite the campaign saying the hardware has been mass produced) and the software is incomplete ... classic Indiegogo.

Liangchen Chen Campaigner 6 days agoAs of today, we are nearly ready for the final production – for both versions. Now we are holding waiting for Moto side to fix OTA problem. This is the main blocker on production – we need OTA function working before flashing the firmware in production. And OTA requires Moto to work with their servers and test etc, which we can’t help but waiting. And as we are the first non-inhouse Mod after all, the procedure is different, and Moto needs time to implement it for us.

Quote:

Liangchen Chen Campaigner 4 days agoThere is functional restriction with uncertified Mods, at this stage it’s not considered – I also need to be able to sell this product into market to pay the debts for production and R&D. And we have passed all the tests I still believe it can be done, just needs to wait a bit until someone from the other side recover from the situation.

As I understand it, it's shipped for some early people but it's not the final version. There were some bugs found As well, it's not currently certified and therefore some functionality is restricted (maybe patching bug fixes and firmware updates).

I'm confused. An OEM like Motorola would allow a non-certified device to be shipped? Is this common with large OEMs? If so, I guess I have a lot to learn.

What is OTA in this context, and why do you need it to ship a keyboard?

It's not Motorola Mobility shipping it directly, so there's nothing they can really do to prevent it. OTA that he's referring to is the update mechanism.

The way Mods work is kinda complicated (disclosure: I did a little development for MotoMods as a side thing), but basically the MotoMods application needs first to recognize the device that it's connected to. This can be done I think for an uncertified device by manually installing something (and may require some debugging/developer flags), but I can't remember the procedure. For a certified device, when you connect the device to the phone it can check for the latest firmware for the device over the air and update it as required. This requires both Motorola to have it set up for this (first part of OTA) and the developer to have a server that hosts the file (second part of OTA).

Here's the reason this is important (quote from developer):

Quote:

I still think it’s necessary to have OTA as we found some bugs under Oreo for certain model. Not sure for others.

From what I understand, Blackberries (pl.?) have good build quality. But the keyboard on it is too small for me. I would not be able to type on it much better than on a touchscreen. This even though I have small hands.

Thanks, but as cool as the Gemini is, it's not really designed to be a phone (which they say right in the video you linked to). Touchscreen it out. I'm telling you, I cannot type on a touchscreen, for reasons I will not get into here.

It won't meet my needs. It's too big, and not really designed to be a phone. The second set of words was taken straight out of the review. I don't know why you're debating with me. Not for me. Insisting it is will not change reality.

It won't meet my needs. It's too big, and not really designed to be a phone. The second set of words was taken straight out of the review. I don't know why you're debating with me. Not for me. Insisting it is will not change reality.

Not being designed as a phone doesn't mean it cannot function as one - the same video shows that it takes a SIM and can make phone calls, in addition to running android apps. I don't blame you for not liking the form factor, nor the price, but the reality is that you don't have many alternatives to choose from.

Plus its yet another first time crowd funding product, on Indiegogo to boot.

I really like the product, but I keep talking myself out of it. Probably for the best, as the first batch of shipments has all kinds of quality issues with the keyboard (wobbly keys, keys that pop off, etc).

And it would have been much more useful to me with a trackpoint, as I was planning on running Linux on it, not Android.

More of a connected mini notebook than a phone. The Gemini is used exclusively on a table in the review video posted above. Plus its yet another first time crowd funding product, on Indiegogo to boot.

Yeah, it's "only" 10mm taller and 5mm wider than a Note 8, but I can't imagine using that one handed. However, the OP hasn't been particularly forthcoming on what their use case is, so I figured it was worth linking.